Parents-Shocked-Over-Violent-Math-Problems

reply to post by zarp3333


It's not about impressing the kids or being their friend.. Its about catching their interest. Making them want to do the math.

I couldnt give two hot farts about how many apples Suzy has or when a train traveling 120mph will meet up with a train traveling 165mph.

But ask me about something cool and maybe I'll care enough to work through one or two of these and even go so far as to talk about it with my buddies in class.

That's the idea anyway.

So much of this outrage is pointless. Show me a kid who doesnt go home and play Call of Duty for 6 hours or watch R rated movies back to back and then you can complain that the word problem is too graphic.

The question that should be asked here is "are the kids learning the math?" Yes or no. If no then drop these tactics because it's risky (as we have seen by the popular outrage) and pointless. If yes then we have a whole world of educations, social and psychological research to do.

If you're gonna count on other people to teach your kids you're gonna have to give them the freedom to teach the way they think they should. Otherwise why the hell are you letting other people teach your kid in the first place? That's the idea, right? They're the professionals? They'll do it better? They're backed by government panels and accredited universities and exams and all that crap, right?

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


I can show you a 3RD grader who doesn't play COD or watch R rated movies
If we can't catch our children's interest without using violence then there must be something wrong...

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


I agree with most of your points. But I think these kids are still too young for this type of subject matter. Unless we're trying to breed a society of sociopaths and serial killers.

Originally posted by iforget
reply to post by thisguyrighthere

 

I can show you a 3RD grader who doesn't play COD or watch R rated movies
If we can't catch our children's interest without using violence then there must be something wrong...

Sure, you could. You could show me a third grader who doesnt. Maybe a dozen or two.

School teaches to the lowest common denominator.

If you're a not an average parent and have a not average 9 year old that's great. Get him the hell out of public school.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Even if it is true that the average 3RD greater is well exposed to violence, and I don't agree with that, it doesn't make it healthy to tally body counts for teacher

It is sick if we cant even recognize that then well I dont even know

reply to post by iforget


I work with media and deal with kids regularly.

The most popular everything from books to shows to games for kids is loaded with horrible imagery. It initially blew my mind to see how young the kids are eating this stuff up. When I started my perception of what a 9 year old is was way off.

They're reading books loaded with sex and drugs and violence, watching murder in film and television and actively pumping bullets into avatars daily.

The kids are picking these things and the parents are happily supplying them.

Some of these kids I encounter are foul-mouthed lunatics with absolutely zero respect. Others, who consume the same materials, are perfectly polite and respectful.

Kids are crazy and there is apparently no one right way to go about regulating their media consumption since the results I've seen are so mixed.

It's like today a 9 year old is what years ago a 12 year old was.

If you think it's an issue, and I'm not saying it isnt, it's a much larger one that some graphic word problems on a quiz. For those who are concerned about this drawing a line here is be like tackling global warming by turning your flashlight off.

When kids are reading about overdoses, sex, rape, murder, seeing graphic imagery on TV, ads, papers and magazines and participating in virtual criminal activity through gaming and going through "lockdown" drills in school it seems silly to look at a word problem and say "that's too far!"

Originally posted by zarp3333

Originally posted by VreemdeVlieendeVoorwep
I think what is happening here, is that the teachers, or whoever created the questions, are trying to be "down" with it, trying to speak to the kids in a language, that they (the teachers), think the kids can associate with. They think the kids play violent video games, hang out with gangs, wear the pants to low, etc etc, so the teachers try to be "cool" creating these questions.

I am not saying it right, because the questions are rather explicit, however, i feel that is what they are trying to do.

vvv

Yet another completely implausible rationalization proposed by an ATS member. What's going on here? Does anybody think 3rd graders would play such sick video games? Does anybody think a teacher would care about being perceived as "down with" anything to impress 3rd graders? Or that 3rd graders would make a connection between a teachers' interests in vid games and a cool factor?

It's time to start considering what would have been incomprehensible last year. Just as the banks appear to be run by depraved luciferian thieves, the same is most likely true here.

There has been a 300% increase year over year in arrests of child molesters in public schools where I live. The sick f*cks have infected our schools from Secratery Arnie Duncan, right down to teachers in DC schools.

Yet another completely implausible rationalization proposed by an ATS member.

You say this, then you make this GIGANTIC leap from video games, to banks and thieves, to the increase of child molesters in your area.

I was laughing harder than I have in a while thanks to this test. This may actually be a good theory though, to make math interesting make it funny. Especially liked number 14:

A UFO landed in my backyard yesterday. I had 34 pieces of $20 notes in my pocket. I bought 8 laser guns at $43 each and 25 cute long-haired zulags at $5 each from a purple-eyed alien. How much money did I have after that?

Sure, there may be a special kind of humor needed to find this test hilarious, but if the students do find it funny then they might learn something. Right now student learning is a joke in itself. I can understand why people would freak out about this though, but wait until the results come in for the test, then see if the students performed better. If they did then apparently twisted humor is the solution for failing education systems.

edit: removed my stupid post.

sorry

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


I absolutely agree that these teachers were trying to use stimulating imagery in their tests to attract the children's attention.

Kids today are subjected to WAY more gnarly violent content through various media than we ever were. My stepson, who is in the first grade watches only Disney and Pixar movies at our house and we dont have cable for that very reason, but when he goes to his other parents house, he watches Avatar, the Hulk, Transformers, Iron Man...the whole shabang.

Do I find these to be child appropriate? Absolutely not. But apparently all his peers are watching the same stuff so it is not like he is a special case. Now, watch those movies and tell me you dont see concurrent themes to these test questions..

A reminder for us old timers...video killed the radio star, and times they are a changin.

'nuff said.

reply to post by insanedr4gon

I was laughing harder than I have in a while thanks to this test. This may actually be a good theory though, to make math interesting make it funny. Especially liked number 14:

A UFO landed in my backyard yesterday. I had 34 pieces of $20 notes in my pocket. I bought 8 laser guns at $43 each and 25 cute long-haired zulags at $5 each from a purple-eyed alien. How much money did I have after that?

Yeah it's kind of funny at first glance. But you look deeper at that question. You can see a darker message.

It could been seen as a metaphor for illegal weapons trading, human trafficking, perhaps for prostitution / sex slave industry. Why else would someone buy lasers from an alien in their backyard and a few cute long haired "zulags".

Originally posted by Biigs
WOW thats sneaky!

I certinly never had any questions like that at school, it was all apples oranges and random first names.

"timmy has 5 apples and jonny gives him the 3 apples he had, how many apples does Timmy have now."

I think parents need to be paying attention to this, sounds almost unbelievable!

no .. the parents ARE paying attention......it's the PCS board that SHOULD review that's being taught FROM the teachers ..or the Curriculum.

or do is it a 'free for all' for teachers to teach whatever.. ? or are the teachers just passing out papers to be done without reviewing what is on them and 'assuming' everything is ok .. ?

reply to post by ThirdRock69


Believe me, I did think long and hard into this one, and that crossed my mind. Now matter how I phrased it, it always struck me as funny that a third grade math teacher would be buying illegal drugs/weapons and be involved human trafficking, and then telling his students in some secret way, if only they can manage some metaphorical thinking. I know it is twisted humor, but it still is funny.

Math Problem 13
Brian, a brave member of a SWAT team in California, had a terribly busy
week last week. He had to work for 7 whole days. He killed 163 terrorists,
296 murderers and 206 arsonists. How many criminals did he kill on
average each day?

0

Because none have been tried in a court of law. SWAT teams work with the initial arrests don't they?

To calculate the number of criminals you would need to be provided with the number of SWAT team members.

Originally posted by pheonix358
I always had problems with math like this and the basic problems are still there.

How many criminals did he kill. Well that depends. I would not classify a terrorist as a criminal. So we now have two viable answers. I could also ask if the 163 terrorists also murdered anyone or started fires, both likely events and therefore they could have been counted multiple times. This is police and government figures after all, they do like to stretch the math. How the hell is a third grade student supposed to answer.

The questions are too hard.

They are being taught to accept whatever chit they are being given by the one in power.

lol at problem 13! HAHA

Damn, forget the numbers, why is that guy working for swat, and not the military? hahaha

Man, surely this HAS to be a joke. That may just be my ignorance of the glorious U S of A coming out, but this is something a comedian would come up where i live.
This is what satirical comedy is made of - not serious questions aimed at 8 year olds (or thereabouts).

No, this is more like a black comedy, and we're all actors. Humour mixed with the depressing real world.

reply to post by ThirdRock69


That's one of the most #ed up things I've heard about our education system in a minute. What kind of #ed questions are those to be asking a third grader? I think I get the idea behind it. It seems like maybe they're just trying to make the some of them sound interesting or funny to maybe keep the children's attention but certainly there are better ways then using violence and drama to attract attention to children. Kind of shows you why the future is going to be so #ed up because no one really parents their children anymore. They just distract them...or at least that's how it appears to me. If you don't want your child to use violence and drama to get attention then why the hell would you try to get their attention using those same tactics...That's like using sex to get a child's attention.

I wonder if anyone would ever publish a problem like..."Johnny has 500 dollars and he knows where to find some prostitutes; if one prostitute is on sale and only cost Johnny 100 dollars and the all the other prostitutes are 200 dollars then how many prostitutes can Johnny buy to pleasure his cock? In my opinion that would be every bit as bad in many ways as what has already been placed in the school system.

Here's the website that makes the worksheet's

homeschooling-paradise.com

Here's the next Math worksheet. There's some funny ones and some weird ones.


3rd Grade Math Worksheet: 6

Math Problem 3
21 African golfers and 26 American golfers played golf together
yesterday. However, all of them played terribly. Each African golfer
killed 5 flying turkeys when his golf balls flew into the sky. Each
American golfer killed 7 unlucky bald eagles. How many more bald
eagles than turkeys died that day?

Math Problem 4
There are 19 boys and 28 girls in my class. When our math teacher was absent one day, we
decided to have a snot-picking competition. After 5 minutes of intense picking, each boy had
collected 4 snot balls and each girl 6 snot balls. The girls won a major victory that day and
made the boys eat all the snot. But how many more snot balls than the boys did the fast girls
pick?

Math Problem 19
6 hungry vampires and 7 ravenous werewolves caught my Singapore math
teacher and brought him back to their castle. They then took turns drinking
the poor man's blood. They drank a total of 72 liters of blood. Each werewolf
drank 1 liter more than each vampire. How much did each vampire drink?

Very interesting and "disturbing" thread. Even if the intent was to make math more "interesting", how jaded do we think 3rd grade students are? Something is very wrong with this!